According to reports in The Nikkei, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation will join forces with the PSA Peugeot Citroen Group to expand their electric vehicle partnerships to the development of plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The two companies originally signed a memorandum of understanding for collaboration on electric vehicles based on the i-MiEV back in May. With that agreement established the two groups are now developing an electric vehicle for Europe based on the i-MiEV, which will be manufactured by Mitsubishi but sold under the Peugeot brand in parallel to Mitsubishi’s own European i-MiEV.
The report states that Mitsubishi Motors has been developing a plug-in hybrid sport utility vehicle for commercial release by 2013, while Peugeot Citroen is also working to commercialise a diesel-engine hybrid.
It is believed that while the specifications of their hybrid are different, the manufacturers will co-operate in developing and assembling the vehicles’ driving components in an effort to cut costs and speed up production launches.
Furthermore, Mitsubishi Motors will also supply large capacity lithium-ion batteries to Peugeot Citroen with the firms planning to jointly manufacture cars in Russia.
